LUDHIANA — Punjab Shahi Imam Maulana Habibur Rehman Sani Ludhianvi has condemned the harassment of innocent Kashmiri students studying in the state by the Punjab Police after the arrest of four Kashmiri students for their alleged terror links in Jalandhar and Chandigarh earlier this month.
“In the aftermath of recent arrests of Kashmiri students from Jalandhar for their alleged terror links, it is not right to see all Kashmiri students with suspicion. To relate terrorism with any religion is condemnable,” said Shahi Imam in a press statement on Saturday.
On 10th October, state police had raided the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology in Jalandhar and claimed to recover an AK- 47 and explosives from the room of a civil engineering student Zahid Gulzar, a native of Rajpora in Srinagar. Besides Zahid, police also arrested two others students named Mohammed Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both residents of Pulwama as they were also in Zahid’s room. As per police, all three are suspected to have links with terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
A day later, the police arrested another Kashmiri student Sohail from a private institute in Dera Bassi, Chandigarh. Sohail is resident of Awantipura town of Pulwama district and police suspect him to be associated with the other three students.
Following the arrests, the local Police allegedly started profiling of Kashmiri as well as foreign students and directed educational institutes in Jalandhar to provide all information about the students from Kashmir and foreign countries studying there.
The Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Ludhiana said that it is wrong to harass innocent students in the name of terrorism.
“Despite Suresh Arora, DGP Punjab, in his statement said that all Kashmiri students are not suspected, they are being harassed,” he said.
“Some politicians are also giving statements pressurizing the authorities to investigate all Kashmiri students. Have they forgotten that recently a non-Muslim government official became the highlight of media because he was arrested for spying against India? So, will all the people belonging to his religion be seen as suspected?” he asked.
On 9th October, Anti Terrorism Squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had arrested BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal from Nagpur, for providing sensitive information to Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.
Shahi Imam said that “Kashmiri people, like Kashmir, are integral part of India” and asked, “Why those who chant for Kashmir, want to separate Kashmiri people from India? Ludhiana is an industrial city where Kashmiri businessmen have been coming for hundred years, so should we break our relations with all of them just because of a few traitor terrorists?”
Shahi Imam said that a delegation will soon meet Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and DGP Suresh Arora in this regard.
“Muslims love the unity and integrity of the country more than their lives. We are against terrorism, but will not tolerate harassment with anyone in the name of terrorism. Terrorism cannot be tolerated in anyway in Punjab. Today some people want to destroy the peace and harmony of Punjab by spreading homegrown terror. All Punajbi people want strict action against terrorism but no innocent should be killed like happened in last decades,” said the Imam.
Source: Caravan News
